i'm maria, executive director of the transit joint powers authority. i can't tell you how excited i am to be here on this special occasion. congratulations, everyone, we did it. before i jump to remarks i wanted to recognize

senator boxer along with senator feinstein and pelosi has been extremely helpful to helping us where we are today. also from railroad association and secretary los angeles -- we received grants that has the project under construction today. thank you for all of your support. [ applause ] >> as everyone knows six years ago we held an international contest to design the property where we stand today. the architects won that competition with a design for the transit center that stands as a model

of elegance and functionality. 3 years ago we broke ground for the construction and now it's in full construction and you can hear the cranes next to us. now we have a record land sale of $191 million of ceremonial ground break which is the tallest tower in the western mississippi. mr. pell i has designed the transit tower and will highlight the importance of public transit to the region and state of california. as you know, the pros -- proceeds of the sale will help construct the transit center and allow us to keep thousands of jobs to our disadvantaged communities and veterans and women and also

allow us to keep our mentor ship for our youth. that's what the transit project center is doing. the development of the tower, has committed to build i am improvements with the transit center and you will see mission square which will serve as the primary entrance to the square. it will allow public access and providing a meeting and resting place for travelers and workers and residents in the area. the workers in the tower will have direct access to the rooftop that will allow benefits to work in the neighborhood. we congratulate them to the project and welcome them to our community. [ applause ] i would now like to introduce

the man who has been essential and continues to be vital to the project, ed lee, our mayor of san francisco. mayor lee firmly believed and supported the project since it's inception when he was at the department of public works and then as a city administrator. for that, i'm profoundly grateful. without your support we would not be here today. thanks to the plan to promote transportation and development. another infrastructure for sustainable development. mr. mayor lee. thank you. >> thank you, maria, you know, i want to begin by thanking maria because she's now on her

third mayor. and if you are someone who is heading up such and important project for the city and you have to transition every time a mayor comes in, one has to appreciate the anxiety, the twist and turns, the foresight, the confidence that she must continue instilling in her small staff, but more importantly in the investor community because this is where it's at. and if she doesn't have a good story to tell, with a lot of confidence, then her job is going to be even harder and the economy did not help the last 10 years to make that story any better. so with that, i want to just give a hearty thanks to maria's leadership for the last decade-and-a-half for putting together this project and her

continued perseverance to make this happen. today we celebrate the sale of the land for the transbay transit tower. to the entrance transbay transit authority, for the first time i met mr. heinz, i can going to hang out with them more because i have heard a lot of stories between you that will help me run this city better. i will say that when this transit tower is complete, it will have the impact of transforming our city skyline with the tallest structure west of the mississippi and chicago. i'm about to leave for china tomorrow, and i get to go to

china and tell them we've got the tallest building west of the mississippi, what about you? they are probably going to tell me they have tall buildings there as well but we at least have bragging rights. the state of the art, sustainable features, a plan, 1.4 million square foot office tower, developed, owned and operated by heinz. they are reoccurring the renounced architect. this is going to bring 142 good construction jobs in san francisco. i want to thank everybody that has been involved in this. as you can see the former transbay

terminal site is exciting for me. when i was by willie brown, former mayor, i remember cleaning out behind the greyhound station and moving people along inside and outside that terminal and now to know that demolition is complete, it helped people get jobs particularly because of the funds made available. there were 55,000 hours of labor all done without any accident or injury in that demolition. 90 percent of that important work was completed by the 9 counties bay air -- area labor force. that's incredible for the work force throughout the bay area. we today celebrate it's anchor

in all of it's whole region. it will be really what will be built in the near future to serve our city and our region. we have always believe that a transit center is a critical anchor for the jobs in the city. it's the best future for our cities, great transit access, dynamic mixed urban centers, a place for innovation and inspiration. we truly believed that over two decades ago when we started this. within one block of this transit center, there are 4 office buildings under construction, about to begin construction and taken together with today's announcements, i think it's safe to say our bet was confident. this new transit center is only the beginning of what will be happening in

blocks surrounding this site. last year the board of supervisors an approved the plan for an area around downtown strans san francisco to be the center of our region to go to right way, responsibly, providing jobs and embracing existing transit services as well as our future high speed rail and respecting today's resources and climate challenges. we have to realize the way to grow in the future is to accommodate jobs so people can use public transit, walking and bicycling to get around. a new and large part of

what it's all about is this new transit center, public amenities and private buildings expect to generate at least 25,000 job years of construction employment alone. when complete, this new district will accommodate at least 27,000 permanent jobs here in our city. the office space provided for this plan will help ensure san francisco remains the knowledge economy center for the region, if not nationally. this new downtown district will accommodate 6 million square foot of new office space, new housing, 12 hundred affordable new house, 100,000 square foot of new

retail space and of course a network of new and walkable streets. it's an important part of how we are paying for the critical infrastructure. many of you were hurt when agencies were limited in the state. but here in this center, this plan em ploys the majority of the streets and parks and affordable housing by the value of private investment and using the power of tax increment financing. the value of the public land and the targeted developer fees and helping us create this vision without resorting to overburdening our

general fund or new taxes. when this terminal was originally built in the 1930s it was a growing project. i'm confident the growth san francisco will continue to grow with a new transit center and downtown district. i also want to give a great shot out to president obama, it was really his funds that helped us kick this off and pelosi and feinstein and boxer and their on going constant up to date support. at the state level, governor brown has been a very strong supporter and leaders of both houses, president stein house and president per ez have shown

strong leadership. this check is much more symbolic of many many other checks that have come as a result of investor confidence in the city. i want to thank the labor for being part of all these projects and the business community for working closely with us and the transbay joint powers authority for being consistent entities here to steer through all of these years of changes and economic turmoils. i want to thank our friends at boston properties for being great anchors to this city. congratulations and thanks very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. mayor. we very much appreciate your remarks. thank you very much. it is now my pleasure to introduce a very important woman, not only to this project but to this new district.

supervisor jane kim. supervisor was appointed to the board of supervisors, she is currently a member of the finance and budget committees and shares the rules committee. she also sits on the san francisco county authority and the development authority board. i would like to express my appreciate for her unwaivering support through this project. it is my great pleasure to introduce the chair of the board of supervisors and district supervisor jane kim. [ applause ] good morning. and on behalf of the board of directors, we want to welcome you to what will be a landmark in san

francisco. about two years ago mayor lee and i stood roughly in this area with maria to announce the ground breaking of the terminal site and at that time if you all remember it was a very different time. we were talking about a time when construction had pretty much slowed to a halt in the city and we were greeting workers who had not worked for years. two years later we are standing at a different time where we have 47 cranes in the skylight here in san francisco. it's amazing how much has changed in the last two years. it's really the focal point of a comprehensive plan marking the new center of downtown surrounding transit also with housing, retail on jobs on a scale that has never been seen

at this scale on the west coast. in total the program represents an exciting evolution for the city of san francisco. connecting 11 transit system and boosting the 5.4 acre city park. the transit will be an incredible asset to san francisco area. we are accommodating growth in a manner that both leverages our economic success while preserving our environment and a complete neighborhood that is safer for our pedestrians, open spaces for workers. places to work that you can walk to and places to live, 30 percent which will be affordable for our residents here in san francisco which will ensure a diverse community in this part of downtown. we must improve and enhance our infrastructure

which trul highlights san francisco as a world class city. i have had the opportunity to be more intimately involved in this process and i know you have done an incredible job. i have visited the tour and terminal that will improve our skyline. as a district supervisor for the south of market and district plan, i'm excite d that the existing residents will benefit from this neighborhood. i'm also proud to represent a city that is under taken such a large and complex project. mayor lee said we have to give thanks to our director, kaplan who has been our chief for years and to ensure a

project happens like this on time. [ applause ] as an elected official i'm very sympathetic acknowledging other officials, jose cisneros from our treasurer's office and former assembly woman, i would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge our former mayor willie brown and john mayor who has been very supportive. thank you to them as well. i recognize our director, but i think it's important to recognize our board of directors who has been really instrumental in advising this project from a construction standpoint and community standpoint and i want to

recognize our directors, art lloyd, gabriel metcalf, director of mta and john, we also have alternate member greg harper, a founding member of the board that will be participating more frequently. i want to thank everyone today. it's been a long process to get here. everyone involved in this project knows. thank you to everyone here. [ applause ] >> i for got to mention that our state senator mark leno has also presented a certificate of recognition to the transbay transit tower. it

congratulations on the tower. on this occasion we mark an historic process that will transform san francisco as the 21st century hub. the city skyline creating thousands of jobs and stimulating local economic growth. congratulations and best wishes on this endeavor. senator mark leno. [ applause ] >> thank you, supervisor, very much appreciate your work and help throughout these years. thank you. if i can have maybe one of our team members grab this. thank you so much. now, it's my great pleasure to introduce our next speaker who is the architect of both the grand central station under construction and the new transit tower soon to be under

construction. cesar appellee. he became dean of the school of architecture and founded the cesar pally associates. his portfolio contains a wide variety of projects, a tower in malaysia, the world's tallest building, the world financial center in manhattan, the san bernardino city hall, the pacific design center in los angeles and us embassy in tokyo japan and another project in washington. mr. pally has over 200 degrees for design excellence. he was list is as

the no. 1 architect and greatest achievement in architecture. he has formulated conceptions of his design. the aesthetic qualities of a building should grow from characteristics of each project such as location, construction technology and a purpose. the tower is a marvelous expression of mr. pally's -- commitment. please welcome cesar pally. [ applause ] >> this is a very important day for me today. i have been dreaming about this tower and the center for over 6 years.

now, this is all going to be reality. i hope not for long we'll all gather here to celebrate the opening of the tower and the center. i have always loved san francisco. it's an incredible city. it's dynamic at the same time, it's gentle, it's an incredible place. we have designed the tower appropriate for this city. the tower will be a dynamic, elegant and very gracious. it will be building appropriate tower for this great city. now that it seems to be the tallest tower, but west of the mississippi, what a marvelous marker for this place. when you see it as a distance, this tower, you will

know that the center is at it's space. when you arrive in san francisco from los angeles or san diego, you will be in this tower. so it's a marvelous combination to have the gateway to the city and the tallest building next to each other. it's an extraordinary combivenlths combination for the center, a new place for the city. the tower will raise into sky and we have designed it to be as delicate as possible and to end that will almost dissolve in the air. it will be a very san franciscans tower. i'm very happy to be here

today. thank you all very much. [ applause ] >> cesar doesn't age. he's just timeless. thank you, cesar. our next speaker is synonymous with quality and development. he's got one of the most paramount development terms, he's involved with all policy and procedure and new centers and cultivating new investor relations. heinz has an impressive portfolio with value property of $24 billion. one of the many reasons we chose to work with heinz is because they have set and continue to set new industry standards for quality and real estate development and management. jerry, i want to personally

take this opportunity to thank you very much for believing in our project 6 years ago. at that time many people thought we wouldn't get to this point and you did and stayed the course with us through a very difficult economic period. that is one of the reasons he's so successful and admired by so many. thank you jerry, for helping with this success and we would not be able to keep one this project and without you believing in us. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. maria, mayor lee, supervisor kim, it's a real pleasure to be here today. it was such an exciting project and with my good friend

zuckerman. boston properties is a great organization with strong commitment to excellence and environment. and let me give you one example of that. this building will be the first that i know of that will be able to introduce 100 percent fresh air on every floor creating a sustainability and lowering the energy requirements of any building in the united states or the world. [ applause ] so thank you, mark, for helping us on that and i think that we have been in this community since the late 70s and we've developed some 9 million square foot and it's wonderful to be part of the pride of san

francisco, but also this tower will be part of an initiative of our country which is to move closer and into pacific. i don't know if you know it, but this will have almost a not quite a twin, but in hong kong, the hong kong monetary authority, you will have 2 towers by cesar pally looking to one of our major initiatives of our country in the next 15 years which is the pacific. so, we will be the brother of the sister in hong kong. so i want to thank each of you for the help and the journey that we